You were born to walk with God, so why would you walk alone?
Enoch is the human archetype of the sacred art of knowing God. History records the myths and legends of persons who lived at a level of God-consciousness never realized by the majority of their contemporaries. A few of them are
Buddha, Abraham, Lao Tzu, Moses, Confucius, Mary the mother of Jesus, Saint Paul, Muhammad, St. Francis of Assisi, and, more recently,Mohandas Gandhi, Mother Teresa, and the Dalai Lama. There are many, many others, of course. Jesus lived at this level, too. In fact, most Christians believe Jesus embodied the Divine presence in his earthly life more completely than any other person who has ever lived.
Throughout history, the people who seemed to have arrived at an advanced level of spiritual awareness were known by specific names. Jews called them tzadikim, Hindus called them avatars, and Christians called them saints.
Labels are unimportant, however. What is more important is that they were rare souls indeed. Enoch was one of these rare souls, too, although not as widely known. Of him, it was said, “Enoch walked with God” (Gen 5:22). Only one other person in the sacred record of Jewish history was said to have reached this level of Divine consciousness. That was Noah (Gen 6:9). The words “walk with God” are an anthropomorphic way of describing closeness, awareness, knowing-ness, and intimacy. Most likely, the words “walking with God” and “knowing God” mean the same thing.
So, what does walking with God, or knowing God, really mean? And, how is this possible?
To know God, or walk with her, means to live your life in the awareness of an indescribable and eternal presence that is within you and all around you, beneath you but also beyond you. It is personal and yet mysterious, real but also surreal. You can know this presence but also not know it. You can experience God, but you will never explain God. When you live your life in union with God, however, you will be at peace with yourself and with the world. You will know joy, too, as well as security and a kind of fearlessness in life. There will be an inner sense that everything is as it’s supposed to be. Anxiety, stress, discontent, and even boredom all but disappear from your life. It is truly remarkable, what the Russian novelist Romain Rolland called, “the oceanic feeling.”
How can one know God? Walk with a consciousness of the Eternal Presence?
1. First, to enjoy an extraordinary life of intimacy with God, you must know that it does not happen by accident. It takes practice to live a God-realized life. “God is not difficult to find,” said Deepak Chopra in Why is God Laughing, “God is impossible to ignore.” And, he is right. But, the more complete picture is, most people go through much of their lives missing God almost all the time. Why? They do not make it their practice to know God. This is why the Carmelite monk, Brother Lawrence, as long ago as the seventeeth century, called the spiritual life “Practicing the presence of God.”
2. Second, don’t misunderstand me. Knowing God takes practice but not practice in the same sense as one would practice improving his or her golf swing by hitting a bucket full of balls at a driving range. There is no effort associated with the kind of practice I’m describing. It’s more like an awareness. When you become aware of your desire to know God, to feel her presence, and so forth, the practice is in giving your attention to that awareness. The more you do–and that’s the meaning of “practice”–the more aware you’ll become of God’s ineffable Presence. I love the way Thomas Merton put it. He was the Trappist Monk who spent much of his adult life at the Abbey of Gethsemane, not more than a few miles from where this article is being written. He said, “As soon as a man is disposed to being alone with God, he is alone with God, no matter where he is: in the country, the monastery, in the woods, in the city…At that moment he sees that though it seems he is in the middle of his journey, he has arrived at his destination already.” Words do not get more beautiful than that.
3. Third, along these same lines, remember that there’s a chasm of difference between intimacy and interaction. With the widespread phenomenon associated with text messaging, e-mail, and cell phones, a visitor from another planet might get the idea that, since humans are always connecting and interacting with each other, they must be friendly toward one another, even intimate and caring. It would not take him long however, to realize that his first impression was an illusion.
Although virtually everyone is endlessly talking and texting, the irony is that we may be the most disconnected, discontented, and dysfunctional generation on record. There is division in almost every family-yours, mine, and the families we know-as well as conflict in relationships both at school and at work. Furthermore, there is division between races, religions, cultures, and nations. People are more divided than perhaps at any other time in the history of the human race.
Conversation is no more communication than sex is intimacy. Communication and intimacy require attention–your attention. In other words, just to boast of praying much doesn’t mean you’re enjoying intimacy with God. A genuine connectedness to Source goes much deeper than words. In its purest sense, the Law of Attraction teaches–that to which you give your attention will expand. In other words, if you’ll simply give more of your attention to your spiritual life, your spiritual connectedness to the Presence of God will expand. And, it will so naturally. That is to say, with no effort on your part. That’s all it takes.
A. Your intention to be in union and intimacy with God.
B. And, your attention to those moments when you are aware of God or just have a thought about God.
Make this your spiritual practice and see what happens. This is how “Enoch walked with God.” It’s how we walk with God, too. So, enjoy the journey.
If you’d like to explore how to walk with God and a host of other questions related to the spiritual life, I’d like to invite you to read the book, The Enoch Factor: The Sacred Art of Knowing God. In it, I share many of the things I’ve learned about this and other important matters pertaining to spirituality. In fact, I’d be happy to send you a complimentary chapter of the book in pdf format, for free. Just send me an email and I’ll shoot you a chapter from The Enoch Factor. Email: steve@stevemcswain.com.
